Multimedia

Narratives

Site Information

Who's Who - Tasker Bliss

Tasker Howard Bliss
(1853-1930) served as U.S. Army Chief of Staff during World War One and
represented the U.S. on the Allied
Supreme War Council at Versailles.

Sponsored Links

Graduating from West Point
Bliss received a commission into the artillery prior to a return to West
Point where he taught modern languages, subsequently graduating from the
Artillery School.

For three years from 1885
Bliss taught at the Naval War College before becoming aide to Major General
John Schofield, the army's commanding general.

Posted to Spain as an
attaché Bliss was recalled to the U.S. in 1898 upon the outbreak of the
U.S.-Spanish War, serving with the 1st Division in Puerto Rico.

For three years from 1899
Bliss served as Collector of Customs in Havana before receiving a promotion
to Brigadier General and an appointment as inaugural President of the Army
War College in 1903, a position he filled again following a spell of service
in Asia in 1909.

In 1915 Bliss was made
Major General and was Assistant Chief of Staff from February that year.
From May 1917 he was appointed acting U.S. Army Chief of Staff, and in
September that year he replaced General Scott as Chief of Staff. In
this position Bliss played a key role in mobilising U.S. forces for war in
Europe and was a trusted advisor of Secretary of War
Newton Baker.

Accompanying President
Woodrow Wilson's
advisor Colonel House
to London in 1917 Bliss was appointed U.S. representative to the newly
formed Allied
Supreme War Council in November 1917, a body intended to oversee Allied
military strategy.

In May 1918 Bliss resigned
as Chief of Staff having reached the mandatory retirement age, but remained
in Europe where he was a key supporter of the appointment of
Ferdinand Foch as
Supreme Allied Commander, although he continued to support AEF commander
John Pershing's
insistence upon an independent U.S. army command.

With the
armistice
of November 1918 Bliss lobbied for lenient treatment of beaten Germany and
Austria-Hungary, and argued for U.S. involvement in the
League
of Nations. He represented the U.S. at the Paris Peace Conference
which produced the
Treaty of
Versailles.